Gail Sidonie Sobat

Who is Gail Sidonie Sobat?

Gail Sidonie Sobat is a Canadian writer, educator, singer and performer. She is the founder and coordinator of YouthWrite a camp for kids who love to write…just about anything!, a non-profit and charitable society. She is also the director of the Spoken Word Youth Choir. Her poetry and fiction, for adults and young adults, are known for her controversial themes.

Sobat founded YouthWrite in 1996, and envisioned it as a multi-disciplinary camp for young writers. A focus on many artistic forms as springboards to creative writing, provides a unique foundation to the camp. Courses offered include traditional poetry and fiction classes, but also drumming and words, movement and words, playwriting, journalism, illustration, writing for radio, screenwriting, songwriting, etc. The camp runs each January and July, and is overseen by Sobat, herself, a team of supervisors, and a slate of authors and illustrators who are professional working artists.

Her books include the Young Adult novels Not With A Bang, Ingamald, A Winter's Tale, A Glass Darkly, Gravity Journal, Chance to Dance for You and a picture book, In the Graveyard, illustrated by artist, Spyder Yardley-Jones. She has also written two books of poetry, "How the Light is Spent" and Aortic Caprice, as well as a novel, The Book of Mary, for adult audiences.